Thought voting was all we had up our sleeves? Think again, buddies. The Curbed Awards also involves totally made-up prizes given to neighborhoods, developments, architects, and people in whatever categories we deem fit. Without further ado, we present to you the places that made the news the most this year.
Neighborhood About Which We Could Not Shut Up: none other than your one-seed, Capitol Hill. It's hope to properties both cheap and, well, pricey as all get out, it's home to some lovely public art, and it's the location of one of the most talked-about condo developments of the year. Cap Hill, you did us proud.
City that posed as a neighborhood successfully for much of the year: Bellevue! Somehow this actual legitimately kind-of-large city convinced us that discussing it like a neighborhood was a good idea when really, it's definitely definitely a major metropolitan center in its own right! No matter; it proved its worth with a slew of great Craigslist stuff, some urban farming, the sale of one of its major shopping centers, a house for a beloved sports hero, and a famously troubled (and fancy!) condo tower or two.
Cinderella neighborhood: Othello! It was a neighborhood of the week, it has a new apartment complex, and everyone can't figure out if they should actually call it Bryant. Sounds like a winner to us! Sure, it got its ass handed to it in the Curbed Cup, but hey, better luck next year, right? And eight seeds have been known to win the whole thing every now and then!
Place you totally dug: anywhere there's a houseboat. Seriously though, you people are fixated. We really really can't post enough of these floaty homes, so much so that all the previous words in this sentence are their own separate links. And you dig them! Whatever, man. We love them too, which is why you'll be seeing more of them in 2012.